In-store displays for hanging product for sale are used in a wide variety of forms. Particularly in the display of clothing, numerous different items of clothing may be hung for display in a retail store. The clothing may be full-length coats, jackets, suits, sweaters, shirts or other items. The hanging and display of such items may require the hangers to be positioned at different locations in the store and at different heights. Some such hangers may be further apart and others closer together.
These features make for flexibility in the design and layout of the interior of the store and a display of the product, and will satisfy the desire of the retailer to be able to rearrange his display from time to time with a minimum of trouble.
In the design of such dismountable display hangers, it is desirable that, as far as possible, when the actual hanger bar is removed, the wall fixture supporting the hanger shall remain in the wall or other panel and the substrate on which it is supported shall appear, as far as possible, smooth and undisturbed and fit in with the general decor and design of the store interior.
Hanging systems involving vertical rails are available, with the rails attached to the walls or substrates, and hangers can be positioned at different locations on the rails. However the rails are usually located in the walls at fixed spaced intervals, and this leads to a somewhat inflexible arrangement. In addition, when the rails are not occupied for the purpose of hanging clothing, they create a rather obvious obtrusive appearance in the store which may be undesirable. One improved form of product display is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,341, dated Feb. 16, 1993, inventor Michael R. Zeld.
In this patent a product display hanger is described which consists of a female socket which may be mounted in a wall or panel substrate. A hollow tubular hanger bar can be positioned in the female socket. Within the hollow tubular hanger bar there is a spring loaded pin, and the pin fits into a recess in the female socket, thereby holding the hanger bar in position.
This design requires the use of a tubular member of considerable diameter, both to provide adequate strength as a hanger bar for heavy items and also at the same time, to provide adequate space for the location of the spring-loaded pin within the interior.
In addition, it is necessary that some form of operating button is provided on the tubular bar, by which the spring loaded pin may be operated.
For these reasons, the system illustrated in this patent represents a somewhat clumsy and expensive solution to the problem. At the same time, the use of a spring loaded retaining pin is always liable to malfunction and failure, and may result in the inadvertent displacement of the tubular bar from the recess, thereby dropping product on the floor, or otherwise being unsatisfactory.
For all of these reasons it is considered desirable to provide an improved and simplified form of dismountable product hanger bar, which does not depend on the use of internal springs and buttons, and which is nonetheless easily dismounted, moved and reinserted by in-store personnel without any special tools or equipment.
In addition to all of these desirable features, it is preferable that such an improved form of hanger shall be incorporated in a modular hanger system, the specifications and design of which may be varied at will from one customer to another, while using essentially the same components, at least as the main portions of the system.